The present invention relates to a firefighting apparatus, such as a fire truck, a trailer or other vehicles, and more particularly to a firefighting apparatus with a ladder mounted recovery winch.
There are a variety of fire trucks and rescue vehicles that include aerial ladders to assist in the fighting of fires. These aerial ladders usually are mounted on a frame or chassis of a fire truck. The ladder can be raised from a generally horizontal position to an angled position so that the ladder extends updwardly from the frame. The ladder can be extended and retracted to achieve varying heights for rescue operations and/or for the application of firefighting fluids.
Generally, aerial ladder trucks are used to fight fires from elevated positions or to rescue victims trapped in burning buildings. Some aerial ladder trucks also can be outfitted with a roof ventilating lance that is operably coupled to a cable. The lance can be dropped with a system of pulleys to ventilate a roof of a burning building. Such a roof ventilating lance is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,298,945 to Anders, which is hereby incorporated by reference. Although this construction allows roof ventilation, it is not suitable for many other operations.
Occasionally, aerial ladder trucks are the first on the scene at an emergency location, such as the location of a traffic accident, a boating accident, a plane accident, a man-made or natural disaster, and/or a terrorist attack, where large objects and their orientations impede the rescue or application of care to victims. While aerial ladder trucks can provide their typical support at the emergency location, such as elevated fire suppression and/or providing an evacuation or rescue “bridge,” such trucks are not well suited for other types of recovery and/or rescue operations.
Thus, while aerial ladder trucks are currently available and helpful in a variety of situations, there remains room for improvement in their function, operation and utilization.